Schooling on Hooked Fish

[tangotracer]

I hooked into my first carp the other day... And shortly into the long fight about 5-6 BIG carp schooled with the one I hooked as I was fighting it!!

I've never seen other fish do this... Are they just trying to pick up scraps of whatever they presume the carp is ripping apart?

I've heard that carp release chemicals/pheromones into the water that alert other carp of danger, so does it have to so with this?

Anyone who has experienced this or knowledgeable on the subject please let me know^^

 

[bigjim5589]

Have not seen it with carp, but have with other fish. Bass, SM, LM & Striped bass will do it. I don't believe it's a schooling reaction, it's more predatory IMO.
I've occasionally hooked more than one of these species on the same lure (those with multiple treble hooks) after the first fish was hooked. I think the second & additional fish are trying to get in on the action. Perhaps even take the "food" away from the first fish hooked. Don't know if that would be the case with carp. I've hooked carp, but can't say I've witnessed others following a hooked one.

 

[ejsell]

My carp knowledge is pretty limited but I've had other species swarm a hooked fish. I always assumed they were attracted to the fighting fish thinking they were going to get in on a meal.

 

[tangotracer]

Oh ok!! Good to know

It is probably worth mentioning that they also pretty much disregarded their survival.... Or were unaware of me

I actually had to push one out of the way with my bet while I was trying to bet the hooked one!!! I easily could've netted it instead... And sadly it was bigger than the one I hooked haha

 

[mirabelasunshine]

I see bass doing this as "barf buddies," gobbling up what the fighting bass is regurging as it struggles. Don't know about carp, though.

 

[Ard]

Hi TT,

I've been seeing many species of fish do what you saw for many years. I've always thought they act very much like chickens, when one hen finds a nice big bug or other morsel the other chickens always chase after her looking to snatch the goodies from her. When I was a boy I saw brook trout grabbing at the worm which dangled from the mouth of the sorry hooked fish.

Just last July I caught a nice rainbow trout at a deep cut bank complete with logjam. As I reeled the trout in a rather huge fish made its appearance racing along beside the Sculpin caught fish. I netted the hooked trout which was quite nice but dwarfed by the big boy........ After a time sitting and resting the spot I cast again and the behemoth came fast and hard. It was way more than I had planned on with a 1968 six foot six inch Orvis Full Flex glass rod and a clicker reel. Things ended badly with the fish wrapped around a log in 6 feet of water and it eventually snapped the 10 pound leader that had it bound to the log. I do plan to return to that spot and I will use 15 pound test and a heavier rod & reel............ maybe. Or I might just take the old Orvis set and try to win the rematch, at least I know what may happen there.

So yeah, it's common to see other fish following one you've hooked up.

Another welcome to the forum and please post with us often,

Ard

 

[tangotracer]

First carp! This one is a baby compared to the one I couldn't land yesterday.... And at 26"! There's plenty of big carp in this river I just need figure out how to catch them lol

I snuck up on a school of these guys and cast from behind some bushes maybe 15 times before the smallest one (pictured) took a grab at it

 

[jpbfly]

I've seen big chub,bass and perch doing this.... but don't know why I was once fishing from a little boat,hooked a big perch...it was followed to the net by a bigger one...if my friend had been skillful he could have netted the two fish at the same time

 

[nick k]

I've seen big chub,bass and perch doing this.... but don't know why I was once fishing from a little boat,hooked a big perch...it was followed to the net by a bigger one...if my friend had been skillful he could have netted the two fish at the same time

I've also seen this from carp, as well as bass and some of the other fish mentioned. I think that sometimes this is a because the mate or parents/children see the fish in distress and are concerned for it. As lovey dovey and non-scientific as that sounded, altruism is instinctive in much of nature.

 

[milt spawn]

Lots of fish will try to steal a meal. They will also try to eat their smaller brethren. We used to catch fish for live bait on kastmasters, and you had to reel them in quickly or you would have a tailess, finless, or bodyless head of a 12" croaker, chomped by the target species. Here's a clip I shot a couple of years ago of a fearless and persistent largemouth at a g.c. pond. milt [ame=http://vimeo.com/28970393]Cannibass on Vimeo[/ame]

 

[wf10f]

The only time I've hooked carp in a school the rest made tracks for anywhere else except by the hooked fish. Like said by others above, I've seen it with a lot of fish but never carp. Maybe you got some really hungry one.

We've double on smallmouth many times by casting to where your partner had one on. They're probably the best known freshwater fish for doing that.

 

[stl_geoff]

Yeah my carp usually do that too. Its just a thing they do, attention is drawn to an area and the other fish are just interested in what the caught fish is doing.

 

[labradorguy]

Dolphin do this all the time. It's smart to keep a fly rod rigged and ready to go when you are trolling a weedline. If you hook up with a mahi, he will almost always bring a couple of his friends with him right up to the boat. Generally they are so fired up that they will smack anything laid down in front of them.

 

[wf10f]

Oh man Labguy, Mahi Mahi is my favorite saltwater fish and you get to eat them fresh. All I've ever had is fish market and even then they're delicious.

I'm going to try to do some carp fishing since i've done very little and caught a few accidentally but there is one lake here with a lot of bigguns and I should give it a try. Nice bass too and I find it hard to think carp when bass and crappie and hybrids are available.

 

[labradorguy]

Oh man Labguy, Mahi Mahi is my favorite saltwater fish and you get to eat them fresh. All I've ever had is fish market and even then they're delicious.

I'm going to try to do some carp fishing since i've done very little and caught a few accidentally but there is one lake here with a lot of bigguns and I should give it a try. Nice bass too and I find it hard to think carp when bass and crappie and hybrids are available.

They're my favorite too. I used to give fillets to an old Cuban gal and in return she would cook some for me. She used to blacken them. She used Cuban spices, mango, lime, etc when she cooked them up and I truly believe it was the best thing I ever ate. Mmmmnnn. I've tried to copy her recipe, but it's never the same. lol.

You can't go wrong with crappie either.

 

[tangotracer]

Sometimes I feel like I'm missing out because I don't really eat fish... Even though I practically live to catch them!

It might be why hunting sometimes draws me more... In that you can enjoy a feast on the bounty of your hard-earned catch/kill

 

[labradorguy]

I'm sort of the opposite. The older I get, the less I hunt and the more I fish. There's no catch and release when you're going out with a .300 Weatherby.

As far as eating fish, I don't see a problem with it if a person is responsible about it. The crappie I eat are from a small private lake that doesn't get very much fishing pressure. If you never take crappie out, in a very short time the lake will not be able to sustain all of them. Instead of nice thick fish, you get stunted fish that you can see though. I'd have to be pretty hard pressed to ever put a fillet knife into a bass or a brown trout though.

Ocean fish are the same way. Mahi are prolific breeders and their growth rate is just short of phenomenal. I'll keep a mahi. A Cubera? No.

 

[tangotracer]

Oh I definitely hear you on this one too... But you have to realize my background too haha

I'm from the adirondack mountains where there's plenty of bass to go around, and the rainbow trout I would get in the lake I lived on are stocked every year

Native brookies? Never... Although we take a few from the remote barely-fished ponds every year during camping trips... And it's a sacred event and this fish is one of the few I actually eat - grilled over an open flame with a can of beans

As far as hunting.... There's enough deer to warrant out-of-season farmer's deer permits so is say it is safe to take one or two a year ^_^

Oh and the squirrels have no limit... They're a nuisance which makes getting squirrel pelts all too easy

---------- Post added at 05:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:15 PM ----------

I think part of my freer attitude on keeping fish has to do with being brought up in an environment that had little pollution and a thriving population of natural resources.... Mainly because it was protected from the harms that laid waste to so many once beautiful areas - now turned commercial estates